• The Surgeon General has determined that there is no safe level of exposure to ambient smoke!

• If you smell even a subtle odor of smoke, you are being exposed to poisonous and carcinogenic chemical compounds!

• Even a brief exposure to smoke raises blood pressure, (no matter what your state of health) and can cause blood clotting, stroke, or heart attack in vulnerable people. Even children experience elevated blood pressure when exposed to smoke!

• Since smoke drastically weakens the lungs' immune system, avoiding smoke is one of the best ways to prevent colds, flu, bronchitis, or risk of an even more serious respiratory illness, such as pneumonia or tuberculosis! Does your child have the flu? Chances are they have been exposed to ambient smoke!

If you have already linked to the old (borderless) picture, this is the newer link.

• The Surgeon General has determined that there is no safe level of exposure to ambient smoke!

• If you smell even a subtle odor of smoke, you are being exposed to poisonous and carcinogenic chemical compounds!

• Even a brief exposure to smoke raises blood pressure, (no matter what your state of health) and can cause blood clotting, stroke, or heart attack in vulnerable people. Even children experience elevated blood pressure when exposed to smoke!

• Since smoke drastically weakens the lungs' immune system, avoiding smoke is one of the best ways to prevent colds, flu, bronchitis, or risk of an even more serious respiratory illness, such as pneumonia or tuberculosis! Does your child have the flu? Chances are they have been exposed to ambient smoke!

and just think: with smoke much of the toxic payload is invisible to the naked eye: PCBs, Dioxins, lead, arsenic, cadmium... let us count the ways!

Thanks for posting,M

"Particulate pollution is the most important contaminant in our air. ...we know that when particle levels go up, people die. " (Joel Schwartz, Ph.D., Harvard School of Public Health, E Magazine, Sept./Oct. 2002)
Find more at http://burningissues.org

I have a question for you W. Today I heard a report that BP is incinerating a substantial amount of the oil they are capturing. Someone has decided that burning the oil/gas is better than letting it go into the Gulf. Have you seen any reports that indicate how much is being burned and the amount of waste being released into the air? Also, as anyone considered whether this is a better thing than just letting it go into the Gulf?

IMHO, it seems that one is as bad as the other. Consider that (a) floating liquid oil can be skimmed.while (b) burned oil results in soot, and byproducts of combustion which are actually more toxic thanthe original oil and (c) burning it only removes the volatiles, and leaves heavy tars and goo, whichseems to double the problem.

Here is how to handle the cleanup: The president should direct the U.S. Navy to commandeer everyBP-owned oil tanker around the world, and use them to suck out the oil. He can do this under hisauthority of war powers (this is a war against time and pollution, isn't it?)

Then open up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to compensate for any oil commerce shortfall.This reserve was established just for this purpose: emergency. And this certainly qualifiesas an emergency, doesn't it.

• The Surgeon General has determined that there is no safe level of exposure to ambient smoke!

• If you smell even a subtle odor of smoke, you are being exposed to poisonous and carcinogenic chemical compounds!

• Even a brief exposure to smoke raises blood pressure, (no matter what your state of health) and can cause blood clotting, stroke, or heart attack in vulnerable people. Even children experience elevated blood pressure when exposed to smoke!

• Since smoke drastically weakens the lungs' immune system, avoiding smoke is one of the best ways to prevent colds, flu, bronchitis, or risk of an even more serious respiratory illness, such as pneumonia or tuberculosis! Does your child have the flu? Chances are they have been exposed to ambient smoke!

Commandeering BP's tankers was not really my idea, it was the idea of someone suggesting that on TV.It is my idea to tap the petroleum reserve, however.

Someone had pointed out that BP did NOT use the most effective means to plug the leak at the start, instead they had used the most cost-effective means.

"The most effective means" is another thing the president should have required, right from the start. IMHO, if a strong president like Teddy Roosevelt were in charge, that would have happened.

Obama needs to quit compromising with BIG OIL and just lay down the law: "That's it - this is what we will do!"And that's that. Stop worrying about what so-called "free-market" people think. What got us into this mess inthe first place? Might it be the profit-at-all-costs, corner-cutting, damn-the-environment "free-market?" I think so...

• The Surgeon General has determined that there is no safe level of exposure to ambient smoke!

• If you smell even a subtle odor of smoke, you are being exposed to poisonous and carcinogenic chemical compounds!

• Even a brief exposure to smoke raises blood pressure, (no matter what your state of health) and can cause blood clotting, stroke, or heart attack in vulnerable people. Even children experience elevated blood pressure when exposed to smoke!

• Since smoke drastically weakens the lungs' immune system, avoiding smoke is one of the best ways to prevent colds, flu, bronchitis, or risk of an even more serious respiratory illness, such as pneumonia or tuberculosis! Does your child have the flu? Chances are they have been exposed to ambient smoke!

I think the idea of the "free market" is the biggest hoax since religion. There is and never will be such a thing as a "free market." Free markets are for Econ 101. People generally invoke the idea of the "free market " when they are desperately trying to protect their privileged position.